When Nothing Else Matters
Questioner: Good evening, sir. Sir, you talk of how we make our decisions based on mere emotions, and then it affects us a lot. Sir, recently there was a seminar in our college where a speaker came. He talked about a book and said never to read it. Then, out of curiosity, I picked up that book. Sir, the name of that book is The Fountainhead.
The protagonist in it is Howard Roark. Sir, as I read it, I was observing. It didn't affect him in any situation no matter what. Literally, it was like someone was telling him that this will happen to you, this will happen. Yes, sir, he talks like that. But I felt like, I mean, I then questioned whether it really can be like this. I mean, can it really happen like this? I felt good reading that it didn't affect him.
Acharya Prashant: Then you need to go through the book once again. The first time because of that speaker, the second time because of this one (pointing towards oneself). It's a book that speaks to the heart. Not that the character of Howard Roark is seen as indifferent to everything, that's not the case. He is so possessed by, so sold out to just one thing, that everything else has become inconsequential to him. That's the thing.
Aap bol rahe ho, use kisi baat se farq nahin padta. No, that's not the case. One thing matters to him, and he has come to see that, come to know that, realize that. And he has said, now that this matters to me, I'll dedicate myself, devote myself solely to this thing, with the result that there is a "No Vacancy" board for all other things. I'm occupied, I'm sold out, I'm given.
Come pleasure, come pain, come attractions, come distractions, nothing matters to me because now I have something extremely worthwhile in my life.
And so worthwhile that I'm prepared to go to jail for it, and he does go to jail for it. So worthwhile that I am prepared to live a life of absolute poverty for it, and he does live that life.
Questioner: But in the end, he refused many chances, when he was. I mean, he used to get many chances.
Acharya Prashant: So why would one refuse a chance at prosperity, at fame? In fact, the woman he loves dearly, he refuses to marry her until she reaches the same level of impenetrability as he has reached. He says, "You get hurt too easily, and if this world succeeds in hurting you easily, this world will own you easily."
So it's not that the character is wooden, or lifeless, or emotionless. On the contrary, he has the strongest kind of passion. And when you are passionate about the one thing, the right thing, then you become impervious, indifferent to many other things. Isn't that a great way of living life? To have one thing, one right thing as your center, and being dismissive of everything else.
One thing, one life, one love, one passion.
You have advertised the book enough, and that's a good thing to do. I suppose many more youngsters should read that book. And when it comes to girls, women, by the same author Ayn Rand, We the Living. It has a female protagonist. They'll enjoy that.
Questioner: I'll read it again. You said that when no one can bind you, it is called liberation in life. So sir, what is the difference between this and enlightenment?
Acharya Prashant: Chhodo na, kya karna hai. Getting into choppy waters.
